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Samas Antaral
"In the late 1990s and onwards Swedish world music/progressive outfit In The Labyrinth released three albums of marvellous music, founded in the main on the playing and writing of Peter Lindahl. The Garden Of Mysteries, Walking On Clouds and Dryad walked a fine line between prog and world music, but rooted in the imagination of Lindahl all three albums conjured up marvellous sonic imaginings: lyrical, sophisticated, exotic. Much later, in 2011, a compilation showing the breadth and depth of Lindahl’s music was released on the eastward-looking Trail Records (One Trail To Heaven), but since then nothing has been heard from the Swedish multi-instrumentalist – until now. Transubstans Records have released a brand new disk, Samas Antaral, which consists of seventy minutes of intricate, beautifully played and recorded songs. As before, the artwork is special too, created by Lindahl himself.
Although most of the songs here were recorded in the early 1990s (as with The Garden of Mysteries), some tracks date from twenty years earlier, while some sections were added more recently. Samas Antaral is in fact a concept album, a saga written by Stefan Ottman and Mikael Gejel in the 1980s and published in a magazine called Drömskrinet – hints of magic and fantasy abound. The music reflects the atmosphere of this story, and in twenty separate sections follows the saga.
The music opens with light synths and a shakuhachi sample before heading off into traditional ITL territory – exotic keyboards, beautiful instrumentation and a sensation of exploring new lands. There are hints here of such artists as Phil Thornton. The title track brings in a narration (from the imaginary saga mentioned above) before a loping, strident rhythm begins, and heavier synth instrumentation. As ever, it’s all beautifully played and produced – Lindahl has excellent ears. The Raven Prince is more of an eastern sounding trip, while Jambekko is a vibrant waltztime folk piece, again beautifully played on the ethnic instruments that Lindahl uses to such good effect. This piece is a little like the ‘folk’ pieces in the films Time Bandits and Dark Crystal – evocative, quirky.
Later in the album Return Of The Hermit is a beautiful guitar-based piece, with a lovely melody and descending chord sequence. This piece, along with many others, show one of Lindahl’s particular skills, that of orchestration. Elk Warriors is a flute and synth-based interlude before, later still, one of the longer cuts arrives, Samirala, whose woozy melody, taken up by a choir then transferred to other instruments, is a real beauty. The South American instrumentation makes it especially gorgeous – definitely an album highlight. Gates Of Cornat is an acoustic tune with thrumming harpsichord in the background and a Celtic hint in the playing. Three short closing tracks all merge narration, keyboards, melody and sonic beauty – a fitting end to a marvellous journey.
Fans of In The Labyrinth will no doubt love this album, which shows off all the many skills of Peter Lindahl. The orchestration and production is of a particularly high quality, while the melodies all float marvellously along on superb playing. A real stunner of an album, in fact, which all fans of progressive music should check out, even if they’re not fans of the world music influences. " - Terrascope